Tuesday, April 7, 2015

CMWC 2015 - Track Day

Date: Friday April 3rd, 2015Distance: 22 milesSong of the Day: Halfway Home - TV on the Radio

I was able to sleep in wonderfully late today. It was almost checkout time when I got up. I grabbed a quick shower and packed up my stuff. Because it was good Friday many of the shops were closed. So we figured we would just get breakfast at the hostel. That was almost a good idea. The staff kitchen staff was nice, but their refrigerator has been unplugged. Most of their stuff spoiled so the menu was a bit limited and took quite a while to get prepared. Oh well. They were very nice and the food was good when it came.

After that we headed down to road to the Brunswick Velodrome. They had a cyclocross race course set up in the center of it. I wanted to give it a go but they started five minutes before I got there. Whoops. Ah well. Probably just as well. My legs were stiff and sore from the trip down to Melbourne. After the cross race they had a few track events. I am not much for track cycling, but it was fun to watch at least.

There was an alley cat in the afternoon. Part of me wanted to race, but I also still had all my stuff on my bike. (Like a tent and sleeping bag.) I didn't really want to tear across Melbourne with it all. So I went to man a checkpoint with my friend Nick from Brisbane. It was a good time. We helped a random guy patch a tube. There was also a documentary crew that showed up to film the checkpoint. I hope they got some good stuff.

After the race there was a party in the Fitzroy area of town. I tried out for the goldsprints that were set up. (This is basically two stationary bikes with a computer to determine how fast and far they are going. The two riders then race each other.) They also had a live metal band to play music while the race was on. I didn't do well, though. I was pitted against Fuego, one of the guys racing track earlier in the day. Ah well. It was all in good fun.

I did get to finally meet Yoshi, the guy I was going to stay with. After the sprints we rode back over to his place. It is a cool old building. I crashed on the couch and slept like a baby.